The hospital has a dedicated, locally recruited medical team serving the hospital 24 hours a day. The medical staff consists of a part time paediatric medical supervisor, a full time doctor’s assistant, full time matron and nursing staff, and full time laboratory assistants.

The fact that, in a country with an infant mortality rate of 165 / 1,000, the Bo Children’s Hospital has experienced the loss of only 2 lives out of the 19,000 patients treated in its first five years of operation, bears testament to the quality of the patient care.

The hospital is administered by a manager, accountants and general staff. They undertake daily management and provisioning of the hospital as well as producing regular medical and financial reports. The hospital endeavours to recover costs of services where possible and the administrative staff are responsible for collecting and accounting for these fees.

The Bo Children’s Hospital is located some 5km from the centre of Bo, on the main road to Freetown (the national capital). With an estimated local population of about 200,000, of which only a minor proportion (10%) have personal or family vehicles, a large number of people depend on commercial motor bikes for their daily transportation. Most of the patients who visit the hospital use this form of transport to access our services and also to return home. The mothers carry the children on their laps without any protection and are many times under some degree of stress. If an accident occurs, the situation gets very much more complicated. The objective of this proposal is to reduce the burden and risk associated with this type of transportation for both the mothers (care givers) and the children. 

A child’s attendance at the hospital often involves the mother spending considerable time travelling to and from the hospital and also staying at the hospital. A program has been put in place to provide food for mothers at cost. 

Also, to encourage mothers to bring their sick children to the hospital in the early stages of sickness there is a need to provide food free of charge to the children. This program will increase the number of children presenting promptly for treatment, with consequent improved health outcomes.

The hospital has a laboratory that regularly performs tests for the purpose of diagnosis. However, this facility is not adequate for the requirements of the hospital. Expansion of the laboratory will allow more frequent and reliable tests -and a larger range of tests- to be carried out, thus greatly improving the diagnostic process.